![[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]](https://www.lsoft.com/images/HDR-LISTSERV-sm.gif)
There are many possible ways to measure the relative "importance" or "size" of LISTSERV sites: number of lists, number of subscribers, number of messages delivered, etc. In most cases, the number of messages delivered is used to rank mailing list managers, because it is the most accurate measurement of the amount of activity on the server. But, depending on what you are looking for, other variables may be more appropriate. There are currently three LISTSERV "Top 20" lists, ranking the various servers according to:
In addition, you can view a list of the Top 20 lists in the network (by number of subscribers).
The statistics are gathered daily by a monitor at L-Soft which polls all the LISTSERV sites that participate in the "open" LISTSERV network over the worldwide Internet. Corporate servers operating in a "closed" environment are not included.
The statistics are organized in monthly reports. The message volume figures are a flat average of the accumulated traffic for the entire month. Thus, a server that delivers 300,000 messages per month will show a daily average of 10,000 messages. In practice, there is a lot less traffic during the weekend, and even during business days there can be significant fluctuations (~30%). The list statistics (number of lists, number of subscribers, largest lists in the network) are measured as of the last day in the month.
For the current month, the message volume figures are averaged based on the number of days that have elapsed. In practice, the figures are not very meaningful in the first few days, especially if the month starts on a weekend. In that case it is best to refer to the previous month for more accurate figures.
A fourth "Top 20" list is available for the more technically oriented: Number of messages generated by the server. This corresponds to the number of mail messages created by the server while processing postings to its mailing lists. LISTSERV delivers its mail using an intelligent mail delivery function called DISTRIBUTE, which improves mail delivery times and reduces bandwidth usage by spreading the delivery chore over scores of participating servers. Each of these servers processes the recipients for its service area (typically its organization or campus). In most cases, DISTRIBUTE simply alters the manner in which the mail is delivered, and the number of messages forwarded to other sites for optimized delivery is roughly equal to the number of messages received by other sites for the same purpose. In some cases, however, this is not the case, either because the server elected to serve a much wider service area than its own organization, or because it is explicitly forwarding all its deliveries to another machine (for instance, many mainframe-based servers forward their mail to a workstation or PC for delivery).
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 713867 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 311115 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 309332 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 4 229634 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 220339 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 191496 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 7 183889 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 2.6.32-46-pve) 8 173330 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 9 171407 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 10 166830 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 11 166699 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 166323 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 13 166057 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 14 161649 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 155763 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 16 154358 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 147451 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 144849 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 144445 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 140191 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4882716 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3372964 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1731191 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1720047 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1423244 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 1369824 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 7 1235861 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1199700 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 994253 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 11 983654 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 938721 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 13 919438 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 14 907318 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 15 899981 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 16 818247 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 722078 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 717831 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 690951 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 666361 LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26351 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 14825 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14009 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 13203 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 5 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 7 8344 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 8 7154 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 6865 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6845 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 11 6440 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 12 6383 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 13 5663 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 5475 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 15 4249 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 4013 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 17 3866 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 18 3671 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 19 3519 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 20 3415 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 690599 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 306004 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 225335 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 4 215434 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 165938 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 6 163802 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 7 163359 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 8 163197 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 9 157664 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 10 155838 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 154101 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 12 150427 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 144389 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 14 143106 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 134307 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 16 127303 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 117585 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 116735 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-573.22.1.el6.x86_64) 19 115209 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 20 110909 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 301227 NYSTEACHING@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 2 300732 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 3 77013 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 62621 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 54051 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 6 41337 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 7 37751 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 34949 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 9 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 10 33622 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 11 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28747 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 28672 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 16 28279 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 17 27723 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 27424 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 26418 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 20 26117 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34)